US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew Washington from the multilateral accord in early May, but, along with Iran, the remaining signatories—the UK, France and Germany, China and Russia—pledged to maintain the deal despite the exposure their companies would have to heavy US sanctions.

“Europeans and other signatories of the deal have been trying to save the deal... but the process has been slow. It should be accelerated,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi said. “Iran is [to date] relying mainly on its own capabilities to overcome America’s new sanctions,” he told a press briefing broadcast on state TV.

The day prior to Qasemi’s statement, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was reported by Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News Agency as saying: "These measures [by Europe] have been an announcement of stances rather than operational measures. Though they [the Europeans] have moved forward, we believe that Europe is still not ready to pay the price."

In early August, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini insisted that the member states of the 28-nation European bloc would not let the Iran nuclear deal die and said European companies were not at all bound by Washington policy to stop trading with, or investing in, Iran.

Trump is trying exert immense pressure on the Iranian economy, to the point where Tehran will have no choice but to come to the table to renegotiate its role in Middle East affairs. To do that, however, the US will have to persuade a huge number of companies and countries to not do any business with Iran. The threat of heavy sanctions, and the imposition of such sanctions, is the key policy designed to achieve that aim. Europe’s big companies, with links to the US economy or financial system, are finding it tremendously difficult to avoid exposure to the sanctions despite the EU’s pledge of assistance. The EU therefore seems to be encouraging waves of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), with no or limited US exposure, to pick up some of the slack.

Mogherini earlier said: “We are encouraging small and medium enterprises in particular to increase business with and in Iran as part of something [that] for us is a security priority.”

“If there is one piece of international agreements on nuclear non-proliferation that is delivering, it has to be maintained,” she has also stated.

Vast potential
The EU hopes many SMEs based in Europe will seize opportunities to profit from the vast potential offered in developing an economy with 80mn inhabitants. Many of the big European companies that have unbreakable US links—as well as Total these include carmakers Peugeot, Renault and Daimler, Deutsche Bahn and Deutsche Telekom, and oil, gas and petrochemical group OMV—have already announced continuing to do business with Iran is not feasible under the current circumstances.

Under a “blocking statute”, European firms have been instructed that they should not comply with demands from the White House for them to drop all business with Iran. Those who nevertheless opt to pull out must obtain authorisation from the European Commission. Without an authorisation, they even face the risk of being sued by EU member states. A mechanism has also been opened to allow EU businesses impacted by the sanctions to sue the US administration in the national courts of member states.

The EU is promising to unveil more measures to help secure continued nuclear deal benefits for Iran over coming months, but the Iranian political centrists will need to see results to convince the hardliners that sticking with the accord is the best way forward. Too much talk and not enough action from the Europeans could see the hardliners demand Iran itself withdraw from the nuclear deal.

Battered Belarus faces a new economic crisis if Minsk fails to secure full compensation from Russia for losses triggered by the latter’s new energy taxation system (the so-called tax maneuver), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in a stateme

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